Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, October 11, 2007

Whether you live in Seattle, Bellevue or Des Moines, traffic gridlock and the lack of reliable transportation alternatives make getting around King County increasingly difficult.

As members of the King County Council, we worked collaboratively across party lines for several years to develop a comprehensive and balanced transportation plan to get King County citizens moving again.

We frequently disagreed as to what the right projects were and how to pay for them. After all, we represent very different areas of King County -- rural to urban to suburban. We knew that addressing our transportation problems was too important a task to delay. We shared our differences, expressed our points of view on behalf of our constituents, compromised where necessary, and arrived at unanimous agreement on a plan after attending dozens of meetings and reviewing thousands of public comments.

The result of that work is the Roads and Transit plan (Proposition 1), which will be on the November ballot. It is the first balanced transportation plan ever created for the Puget Sound region. Roads and Transit will build 50 miles of new light rail, replace vulnerable bridges, fix the worst chokepoints on our highways and build new bike and pedestrian paths across King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

Some Oregon Residents Upset at Prospect of Pumping Their Own GasBuzz 60

Doug Baldwin playcallingBy Michael-Shawn Dugar, SeattlePI

Van Crashes Into Pedestrians Injuring SixAssociated Press

US military to accept transgender recruits after Trump drops appealEuronews

Snow on Christmas Eve, 2017Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ice carving at WinterfestSeattle Post-Intelligencer

Amtrak derails near OlympiaGrant Hindsley / SeattlePI

Golden retriever meets Darth Vader and EwokSeattle Post-Intelligencer

The proposal requires a significant investment, but it is an investment we believe our region needs to move forward.

Imagine getting on a light rail train in downtown Bellevue and arriving in Seattle in just 20 minutes, every time. Imagine crossing the new Evergreen Point Bridge, complete with two-way HOV lanes, bike lanes and new shoulders to allow stalled cars a place to pull over without blocking traffic. Imagine taking light rail to the airport from Federal Way, Lynnwood, Redmond or Northgate.

The Roads and Transit plan will transform how we move around King County and the region. It will provide new transit options and address our most pressing road safety and mobility projects. And it will help ensure that we are ready to absorb the 1 million new residents who will be living in our region by 2025.

In addition to moving people, the Roads and Transit plan will help move goods by improving freight mobility. The plan replaces the South Park Bridge, which serves as a vital freight route and is so vulnerable it is scheduled to close in 2010. It also improves our most congested corridors such as Interstate 405 and state Route 167, which will move both people and goods more efficiently, and the "Mercer Mess" in Seattle.

Roads and Transit also reinforces and widens the Spokane Street Viaduct. This will not only help move goods out of the Port of Seattle, but the added HOV lanes will also make the investments we made in express bus service -- through Transit Now -- work more efficiently.

As we approach the Nov. 6 election, we encourage you to closely review the proposed Roads and Transit plan. You can go to www.yesonroadsandtransit.org and enter your ZIP code to see which road and transit projects will benefit your daily commute.

The opportunity for elected officials to influence the Roads and Transit plan is over. It is now up to you to consider this plan and decide what transportation system you want for your community. We urge you to vote yes on Proposition 1.